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The World of Cyber Forensics and How to Benefit From It?

When we mention a crime, images of robberies, grisly murders and detectives swarming the scene of the crime come to mind. However there is a different kind of crime that leaves no bodies and that is cybercrime. When a cybercrime takes place, traditional detecting methods fall flat on their faces. Things like hacking, data theft, phishing, cyber fraud, and identity theft are all sophisticated means of cybercrime.

If it is to be defined, cybercrime is an illegal electronic operation that targets a particular network of computers and exploits its vulnerabilities. Even though cybercrime does not take a life, it has the immense potential of disrupting the normal flow of life. For companies which are dependent on networks and data, cybercrime poses a real and imminent danger. Cybercrime cannot be eradicated completely but with the help of cyber forensic services in India, it can be tackled efficiently.

With the majority of corporate houses, the police are not trusted. This is because of two reasons. The first is that the police are not equipped with the requisite skill set and tools to conduct a successful investigation. The second reason is more to do with the image of the corporate house in question. No successful company or business with a huge base of customers would like it to be made public that they have been victim to a cybercrime. The general public is fickle in nature and they might fear a loss in their stakes and stop doing business with the company in question. Add to this the highly competitive business environment and you can imagine why a business house would want to put a lid on things.

The ideal entrant to this scene is a professional cyber forensics team that has discretion and the needed skills to get to the bottom of the matter without creating much of a fuss. Also, sometimes the criminal turns out to be a company employee. The image of the company suffers a lot when one dishonest employee upsets the apple cart. It takes months and even years to regain credibility in the eyes of the public. For all these reasons companies and businesses turn to cyber forensics experts to help them out when there is a problem.

Because most cybercrimes take place over the network of the computers at a particular organization, the cyber forensic expert has to be a real adept in network security and its associated branches. Data recovery and encryption are second nature to a cyber-forensic team because most of the theft is done with the stealing of data and passwords. A cyber forensic expert team needs to be spot on in terms of cyber laws and their infringement. This is because in the case of a successful investigation, the cyber forensics expert in India will in all probability be asked to depose as a witness against the accused in a court of law. And it is not always computers that cyber forensics experts deal with all the time. They might have to work on mobile phones, PDA’s, USB devices as well as media players among other things.

The process of collecting evidence after the cybercrime has been committed is no cakewalk, cyber forensics experts have to be extremely careful while digging up evidence as the loss of even a single bit of information could meant the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful investigation. A cyber forensic expert has tools to help him in the investigation, these tools are software packages that can be used to preserve information or extract data from devices. These software are proprietary software, open source software and tailor made software.

Benefiting from cyber forensics
One of the services that cyber forensics in India offer is electronic discovery. In this, email, documents, trade secrets, intellectual property, databases, copyright issues, instant messaging, computer security and network intrusion is examined with minute care to determine what information would be of use in a particular case or situation. This is especially important when the client has the knowledge of what information is on which computer and needs help with the right guidance and direction to use the data.

Data discovery and analysis is another area where computer forensics can help. The forensics teams uses methods to retrieve data that was thought to be missing or lost. After recovery of the data, investigations are done to determine the author of the data and necessary steps are then taken. This is quite an important area as there is sensitive information which can be lost at the press of a button.

Preservation of evidence is another benefit to be obtained from cyber forensics in India. During this a forensic image is made of all the related data. This image is what was being analyzed and in this the original source of the data extraction is put in a safe environment. The authenticity and the security of this information is handled with care by the computer forensic specialist.

After these steps are done, it falls to the computer forensics expert to piece together a comprehensive report based on the findings. The evidence collected is carefully phrased and the report contains the key issues that are especially relevant to the situation at hand. The goal at this stage is to correlate each finding to the case so that the argument of the cyber forensic expert is buttressed and has the highest chance of success in a court of law.

After all this work when the case goes to court, the presence of the cyber forensic expert is commonly very important to give witness or to examine the case as it stands. The cyber forensic expert is treated as an expert source to give testimony to the actual findings and very often the success of the case hinges on them.

Netrika Consulting has been in the field of forensics services in India for a very long time. They have the resources and wherewithal to effectively conduct a cyber-investigation and be of help to the company that hires them in their hour of need. Their services are result oriented and companies will stand to benefit from their expertise.